UPDATED 2018-04-12: The sandbox release date has been adjusted to April 16, 2018.

Patch Notes Webinar

The AvaTax April release will launch to the Sandbox environment two weeks before production. If your engineering team would like a sandbox account for testing purposes, please contact your account manager or open a support ticket.

The AvaTax API team hosts a weekly developer webinar where you can meet and talk to the developers directly. If you would like to ask questions about the release, please sign up and join us for a lively discussion of the AvaTax API.

Marketplace Locations

Customers doing business through marketplace vendors may be affected by the Washington Marketplace Fairness Act, which requires ecommerce marketplace facilitators to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of sellers. In AvaTax 18.4, you can designate specific Locations as marketplace locations, and you can specify whether a marketplace collects and remits taxes for you.

To use this feature, follow these steps:

First call the [CreateLocation API]() to create a location with the `addressTypeId` field set to `Marketplace` and choose either the `SellersRemitsTax` or `MarketplaceRemitsTax` option for the `addressCategoryId` field.

When creating transactions, select the `reportingLocationCode` field on the [CreateTransaction API](/api-reference/avatax/rest/v2/methods/Transactions/CreateTransaction/) to the `locationCode` field of the marketplace location you created.

All transactions that are tagged with a `reportingLocationCode` that connects them to a location of type `Marketplace` with category `MarketplaceRemitsTax` will be filed on your sales tax returns as already remitted.

Company Code

As requested by many customers, the companyCode field on the CompanyModel is now editable. This field was originally marked as not-editable in order to provide compatibility with older software that expected the companyCode field to be static. Now that this field is editable, customers can make adjustments to their company’s code as necessary.

ISO3166 Regions

Based on research from our international teams, we have added additional information to our ISO3166 database indicating which countries require region codes to be present in their postal addresses. This information is available by calling the ListCountries API.

AvaTax APIs that take ISO3166 country and region codes as input have been updated to make the region field optional for countries that do not require it for mailing addresses.

RequestFreeTrial API Changes

The AvaTax RequestFreeTrial API has been updated to request that the user read and accept Avalara’s terms and conditions prior to creating a free trial.

RequestNewAccount API Changes

The RequestNewAccount API for partner account creation has been updated with the latest corporate policies for password complexity. Partners are strongly encouraged to leave the userPassword field blank; in which case users will receive an invitation email to create their password via the Avalara Identity user interface.

New API: DeclareNexusByAddress

Based on feedback from customers, declaring nexus correctly can be a challenge. Nexus jurisdictions must match one of Avalara’s defined system nexus in order to be usable by the AvaTax software.

To simplify the process of declaring nexus, we provide a new API, DeclareNexusByAddress. This API allows you to provide an array listing all of the places of business for your software plus their dates, and it will identify and create all the appropriate nexus objects for your company.

Feature Preview: Advanced Rules

AvaTax now includes a scripting language that can be used to apply complex rules to tax calculations progammatically. This feature allows complex tax scenarios to be handled through a flexible and powerful engine that can help improve your compliance process.